Thursday, June 22, 2000

Odyssey in Cayuga-Seneca lock 3We were off shortly before 0700 to catch up with Odyssey, a boat we'd seen at the Seneca Falls dock which was now heading for the locks 2&3 opening at the first opportunity (their hours start at 0700). We traveled for a while with Odyssey, a Trawler-Cat 36 from Vero Beach, Fla. The couple mentioned that they live on their boat full time; they don't own a house.

Between this day and the next, we locked through eight locks with Odyssey. As it happened, the wives were closest to each other (our bow to their stern) while the husbands were farther apart. We never really met, but we hung around a bit with each other.

Through some internet happenstance, we exchanged e-mails with them over the summer, and we got to meet Don & Ruth Kalen on Odyssey while they were staying at the Burlington, Vermont marina on Lake Champlain near our home. We spent a delightful evening sipping some wine, munching some snacks, and talking a great deal last August. I hope we meet up again. [2002 update, they stopped by on their way to the Canadian maritimes and served us a wonderful dinner on Odyssey. We could have talked all night!]

Currents were very strong. We made record time, I'm sure. Through this cut just east of Cross Lake we were consistently making 8+ mph at the prescribed 2300 RPM. Based on last year's experience, the boats travel ~6 mph in still water.

We were in lock 24 6 hours after leaving Seneca falls. We continued past Cold Spring Harbor to Three Rivers where we turned left into the Oswego canal. We passed Odyssey which had tied up in Phoenix where a supermarket just a stone's throw from the town dock probably caught their fancy.

We continued to to the town of Fulton, about 1½ hours away. We locked through lock 2, stopping short of lock 3.

We had dinner at the Lock 3 restaurant. As last year, food was good, and the portions huge. There are no light meals at this place.

tug ChancellorIt rained later in the evening. The skies had been threatening all afternoon. We saw the full arcs, horizon to horizon, of a double rainbow, but didn't have the camera at the time.

We had aged tug Chancellor to our stern with the remnants of a rainbow further back.



Today we traveled 62 miles through Cayuga-Seneca locks 3, 2, & 1; Erie lock 24; and Oswego locks 1 & 2.